Re: # of Short Stories in a Book?

Are you publishing the book yourself? I doubt any real publisher is going to want a bunch of short stories from someone they've never heard of. So if you are doing it yourself, then just decide how many pages you want to pay for and go from there.

Re: # of Short Stories in a Book?

Re: # of Short Stories in a Book?

Thank you for the help. I have a short term goal of finishing 10 by the end of this month. Being a newlywed I've been busy getting time to write lately. I'm half way to my goal. I plan on writing all that I want in the book and then editing them all.

My novel gave me such a editing headache I'm taking a long break from it. I can't afford a professional editor. Anyway, thank you for all the help, advice, and for the link to the story collection! I may have to check that out!

Re: # of Short Stories in a Book?

Kathy,

Most competitions for short story collections require 150-250 pages of fiction. For a manuscript in standard format, figure approximately 250 words per page. That means you should have a minimum of 38,000 words to make a collection a viable book length.

Duotrope and Poets & Writers both list competitions for short story collections. You might want to check them out: